Quality of Service and VoIP in South Africa

Inconsistency in call quality is familiar to anyone who has ever used a cellphone anywhere in the world. A few years ago, one of the major mobile networks in the US had a television commercial in which someone speaking on a cellphone was pictured in various locations - from the middle of a bustling city, to a secluded woodland and even on a mountain top - asking: "Can you hear me now? And now? How about now?" The ad meant to convey the network's superior coverage, but many cell users, including here in South Africa, often shout those exact words into their mobiles while running around, frantically searching for a passable signal.

"The concern about call quality extends beyond the cellular networks," said Mitchell Barker, CEO of WhichVoIP.co.za, a directory website containing a comprehensive list of South Africa's top VoIP providers. "It is one of the major concerns that people have before switching over to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for their business voice needs. Everyone is aware of the many benefits of VoIP, such as the significant cost savings on phone bills - estimated to be up to 40% a month in South Africa. It is also economical to have converged voice and data services, and VoIP also affords mobility, allowing you to keep your land line number when you port over and even when you relocate your business premises elsewhere."

Business owners remain dubious about call quality

Despite all those advantages, Barker said that business owners remain dubious about the call quality. "Many providers provide excellent, line-grade quality for VoIP users, but those who have not adopted the technology yet are still sceptical. Their concern is legitimate, because although clients will remain sympathetic and understanding up to a point, when they constantly struggle to have a decent phone conversation with you they might lose patience to such an extent that they would feel compelled to just hang up on you and your business."

Call quality on South Africa's cellular networks is monitored by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). The country's telecommunications regulatory body recently released its Quality of Service (QoS) reports for the 2012/13 financial year, covering Vodacom, MTN and Cell C's networks and services provided in Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. ICASA explained that QoS measures the service performance of a network, which determines the degree of satisfaction among users of the service and the capability of a network to provide a quality service to selected network traffic over various technologies, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).

Who regulates?

This begs the question as to whether VoIP QoS is regulated in South Africa and, if so, by whom? "Currently the quality of VoIP is regulated through the interconnection agreements entered into between providers, which sets out the parameters within which interconnection must be provided," said Dominic Cull, founder, owner and telecoms regulatory expert at Ellipsis, a company that provides specialist regulatory and compliance advice to the electronic communications industry. "Perhaps the biggest underlying contributor to QoS problems occurs when VoIP is provided over Telkom's ADSL network - Telkom does not give any QoS guarantees on ADSL, it is a best-effort service."

Cull explained that due to the nature of VoIP - that it is Internet data packets that are converted into voice - it would be a tricky exercise for ICASA to directly monitor it. "Bearing in mind that ICASA works with capacity constraints, it does make sense for them to focus on the QoS of the most widely used tech, being GSM, as this affects a substantial majority of South African consumers and will also form the majority of the complaints which they receive. This does not imply that VoIP QoS is not important or that they will not focus thereon in future."

Barker said that the most important component to a successful IP implementation is the connectivity. Ensure that the provider that you choose has direct management of the network, can ensure end-to-end Quality of Service for voice prioritisation, and that the last-mile link carries an SLA - this will ultimately result in complete satisfaction and quality of experience for IP Voice.